Click on it for a larger picture - the
blue dot shows the location of the old air field buildings and the
orange one shows the location of Satellite Media Service.

● The Ryelands
I moved to The Ryelands in Lawford
Heath (Warwickshire, England) in October of around 1989, I was 7 at the time I think, and moved away in
2002 at the age of 20.

It is
and was at the time a housing estate on the outskirts of Rugby with
approximately fifty houses, originally 2 and 3 bedrooms, a park/playing field,
wildlife park and surrounded mostly by fields.

"Lawford
Heath--The Ryelands
Previously called The Circle, this was Ministry of Defence Housing for the
Airmen and their families based at nearby RAF Church Lawford. The Base closed in
the 1960s and part of it developed as an Industrial Estate, the rest is Ling
Hall Quarry. These houses remained empty but well maintained for about 15 years
until they were bought by Rugby Borough Council."

This map illustrates the area as
it was before I moved there. Circled in red is the Ryelands.

It
was called The Circle before I moved there, presumably because the shape of the
road running through the estate closely resembled a circle. I would then presume
that calling it a circle wasn't all that accurate so it was changed to The
Ryelands. I don't know where this name came from. The spelling of the name then
changed a number of years later to Rylands (omitting the e). I believe this was
because it was spelt that way on the national database of addresses but the
signs at the end of the street were spelt with the e. This would cause an issue
for example when trying to order something by telephone or credit card because
of a "wrong" spelling. In the end I guess the easiest solution was for
the council to change the signs!

● The Park and Beyond

I
remember going with my parents to look at the house, but all I can remember was
the park and the bushes - I was in the den-building frame-of-mind at the time
and Lawford Heath had my imagination running wild! I also remember the old war
bunker and its aeroplane on display in the grounds - this site is now Satellite
Media Services.

The park at
the time consisted of a set of swings, a football pitch with goal
"boards" made from old railway sleepers (from the old railway line
that used to run close by), two wooden climbing frames
made from old telegraph poles, a large mound of mud and a small stone ramp for
riding bikes up. In later years actual goal posts were put in front of the
boards (I remember climbing and swinging on them as they weren't too firmly in
the ground), a slide was added next to the swings and then a "wiggly"
climbing frame added later still. The mound was a great place to ride bikes up
and down, play with toy vehicles, dig and ride sledged down when we had snow,
but it was later shaped and turfed. A number of years later some kids managed to
set fire to one of the wooden climbing frames, these were then taken down and
the area flattened, then foundations were begun to put in place for a
"community hut" and the top soil was added to the back of the turfed
mound. The building never materialised and the now larger mound was used to fill
in the foundation hole and a tarmac basketball court was erected. It was used
occasionally (I whizzed round it on a skateboard every once in a while) but it
suffered some of the vandalism that had become more frequent over the years. A assault
course-style metal climbing frame was also erected around this time.

I
built many dens during my childhood. As children we (my brothers, sister and
friends) weren't really allowed anywhere other than the park but we would always
sneak off into the Back Field, Wildlife Park, or further a field. Some of these
dens were on the ground in bushes, up trees or even under the ground. The best
time of year building or developing a den was just before bonfire night when a
heap of wooden pallets and doors would materialise in the middle of the park.
After the event we would collect the nails left over from the blaze. We never
meant any harm when den building, but our parents were always concerned,
especially with the underground bases. We were often innocently committing such
crimes as could be labelled as trespassing, vandalism and even arson - in the
colder months of later years we became fond of building dens that had
fireplaces. Again, we were just young and exercising our imagination and
ingenuity.

During one period of den building and digging we found an old gas
mask (see picture to the right), very much corroded but such an exciting thing
to find.

Looking back at how the park was developed or "councilefied"
over the years, its additions would be there to suppress such youthfulness. We
were always looking for things to do, if I was ever bored during the summer
holidays I would always be told to go and find something to do. That something
was supposed to be riding bikes on the park, playing football, or playing on the
swings and slide. This would never do for us, we wanted adventure and that's
what we created. Nowadays parks have to be safe, meet legislation this, avoid
red-tape that. What you end up with is cotton wool-rapped children who most
likely lack imagination and ingenuity and probably something else less
definable. Playing as we did taught us our limits. Sure we occasionally got a
little bruised or grazed, but nothing serious and nothing I would consider doing
more damage to ourselves that not being able to play as we did in the first
place.

I don't want to get
into the whole "children of today" argument, but at this time I never
smoked, drank, played with fireworks or threatened anyone with a knife. It
wasn't in our nature. I remember one parent of another child who was younger
than me, getting cross with me for getting up to no good... her son later grew
up to get into far more trouble than me, drink and smoke from an early age.

There
used to be (before I moved there) some buildings on the park, possibly garages
from what I was told, but all that were left when I moved there were the flat
concrete bases. There were possibly dug up or covered over when the basketball
court was built. There were also similar concrete foundations in the Back Field
and one in the Wildlife Park that were probably once stables as that was what
the patch was called.

I can
vaguely remember back to when I first move to the Ryelands and the bus shelter
was a metal structure, this was taken down and later replaced with a brick hut.
This was gradually vandalised - mainly suffering broken roof tiles but this has
been mostly patched up now.

● The War

The main part of my interest in the area now is its links to World War II.
Lawford Heath had an airfield (the area is apparently and technically classed as
Church Lawford).

The runways were mostly still there when I moved to the area
but were later dug up and the area is now Ling Hall Quarry - click here for a map I found of the site.

Some of the
buildings including the control tower still remain but in an empty and derelict
condition. Some of the buildings were/are used for storage by a farmer.

The old
hangers sort of remain but became DK Packing which has greatly developed them,
if not replaced them. To the left is an old aerial photograph (borrowed from www.dkp.co.uk)
of what we always called the industrial estate. If you click on it you
can see my labelled version.

I would guess from what I can see in the
picture that it was taken around the mid '90s, maybe earlier.

Aerial view of DK packing. Click it for a
larger, labelled view where you can see what remains of the old airfield
buildings, Satellite Media Services, and my old house!

Here
are two pictures of the control tower and one of another building at the
air field "Navigation Flight". They were taken by myself back in
1998/1999.

*update* Below
is how the control tower looks as of 2013/14. Much of the rail surrounding
the top and balcony is missing, the windows are mostly unbricked it seems,
and ivy has climbed the walls to the roof. The picture was provided with
kind permission from a Dutch photographer, Theo Barten, in May 2014, who
had contacted me regarding directions to the site. The site and picture
will be featured along with others in a book titled All Along the Control
Tower, which should be available in 2015. Further details are available at
www.narwal.eu

A small structure which we
always called "the bomb shelter" was apparently a "pill box". It is next to the
Lawford Heath Lane between The Ryelands and The Crescent (another smaller
housing estate). It was bricked up at one point but is now open again. There
were always childhood stories of it going underground but later filled in with
concrete. You can see another picture and more technical
details at the
following site:

A
major and "mystical" structure much talked about during my childhood
is/was the Bunker - once known as Area 9.2. This area is now owned and has been greatly developed by
Satellite Media Services - the intriguing mound has been flattened but the
bunker is still there, with the grounds dotted with large satellite dishes. There
was a rumour during my childhood that one of the residents at The Ryelands who's
garden backed onto the Back Field, had discovered an entrance to an underground
tunnel that led to the bunker - the tunnel apparently had some old hospital
beds in. As a child my imagination jumped up a gear or two and I looked all
around for such an entrance but sadly had no luck.

There
is some additional information on the history of the bunker at the following
site. It mentions that the bunker was used for illegal raves but I never heard
of this, although there was some talk around the time of it being turned into a
night club but due to the lack of (a) fire exit(s) this wasn't possible:

Here
are some photographs of the Satellite Media Services facilities. They were taken
by myself back in 1998/1999 and at the time the site was being developed with new dishes
being installed. Sadly the old structure was torn down and the mound flattened.
As far as I'm aware the bunker still remains.

A close-up of the old RAF bunker,
used during the Second World War, and which was being renovated
at the time of the photograph, and an even larger satellite dish
being assemble behind it.

Sadly the structure and the mound
are no more.

A distant shot of the satellite
dishes.

A "distant" shot of the
rear side of the bunker.

Pictures showing the Satellite Media Service grounds from behind.

Close-up of the two main satellite
dishes, and a third being built.

A "part-scan" of my
magazine article mentioned below.

Whilst doing
a bit of Googling, I discovered a document which appears to outline planning
approvals and objections (raised at a meeting) for developments at the site
during 1996 - 2000. The developments include the addition of new satellite
dishes as photographed above, pergola walkway, entrance porch, landscaping and
wildlife pond (I believe these developments have now been completed). Local
residents raised a number of objections/concerns including the release of
harmful radiation from such a site, but the Chief Environmental Heath Office
"confirmed that the development will result in local residents being exposed to
radio frequencies well below the accepted maximum levels of exposure. These
exposures have been calculated and confirmed by site testing. Given this
evidence the proposed development is not considered to be a health risk to local
residents and complies with current guidance." Click here
to view/download the document. Pages 28 - 30 contain the related
information.

Other
reminders of the war history are the numerous craters dotted around the
landscape, most of which are now ponds/lakes and as such some are used for fishing.

For one of my high school
history projects I wrote about the area and shortly after that I sent
information and photographs of the area to UFO Magazine after seeing the "Secret
Britain" article and I featured in a two page article in the January/February
1999 edition - one of my claims to fame!

Click
here for a map of the area on Multimap and I recommend you click on
the Aerial button.

I
have some old maps of the area plus some more photographs that I may add in the future.

Click the
picture to see my scan of the UFO Magazine article I featured in
back in 1999.

Some stories
still crop up about the history of the air field, from people who were stationed
at the site. One time during my childhood whilst playing in the old buildings,
my friends and I met a gentleman who had been stationed at the air field and he told
us that the air strips were rarely used and to pass the time there were
motorcycle races round the air field (it is surrounded by a narrow lane) - we
found in one of the buildings a sign which could have been used for such a race.

I discovered The Dropzone, a magazine/newsletter by
Harrington Aviation Museum, in which Volume 5, Issue 1, February 2007, John
Harding mentions his transfer as Leading Observer (Post instructor) of the R.O.C.
(Royal Observer Corps) to Lawford Heath in 1953:

"[a] big event in the annual
calendar was the annual camp that was always held at an RAF Station in the
summer. Each camp was open for a period of five weeks and we could choose which
week we wanted to attend. During the 1950s the RAF actually put up low flying
jets (Meteors and F86 Sabres) so that we could report and plot them.

In 1953 I was appointed Leading Observer (Post
Instructor) after the resignation of Ron Dodson. At that time our post was
transferred from Bedford Group to Coventry Group whose HQ was actually located
at Lawford Heath near Rugby. Eventually with ever increasing speeds, the
plotting became more difficult and in June 1955 it was announced in the House
of Commons that the Corps was to undertake a Warning and Monitoring role i.e.
the plotting and reporting of nuclear bombs and fallout." Click here to see the whole publication.

The base was known during one period
as Area 9.2. Also on the topic of plotting aircraft, at one time the base
tracked an unidentified object. This was mentioned in UFO Magazine - I will have
to see if I still have that issue.